Valve assembly

ABSTRACT

A chamber housing contains a number of outlet passageways through its walls and an inlet passageway is provided through another member located in the chamber. The housing can be adjusted with respect to the other member to selectively close off the outlet passageways or to place them in communication with the inlet passageway. In its preferred application spray heads are attached to the outlet passageways to be selectively coupled to the inlet passageway.

ited States Patent 1 1 Anderson 1 Aug. 113, 1974 VALVE ASSEMBLY 3,536,100 10/1970 Marlow et al 137/625.47 3,542,336 11/1970 Giese 251/310 X Inventor. Arthur A. Anderson, Paul, Mlnn. Carlson n x [73] Assignee: Speciality Manufacturing Company, 3,735,956 5/1973 Matousek 251/315 St. Paul, Minn. Filed: Feb. 1973 Primary ExammerHenry T. Klmksiek Appl. No.: 330,992

Sachnik 137/625.47

Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Jacobson and Johnson [5 7] ABSTRACT A chamber housing contains a number of outlet passageways through its walls and an inlet passageway is provided through another member located in the chamber. The housing can be adjusted with respect to the other member to selectively close off the outlet passageways or to place them in communication with the inlet passageway. In its preferred application spray heads are attached to the outlet passageways to be selectively coupled to the inlet passageway.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTED AUG] 31974 I SHEET 1 UF 2 VALVE ASSEMBLY FIELD OF THE INVENTION DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the past, spraying equipment has lacked versatility when the spray apparatus has been used to spray different fluids while using a single nonadjust able spray head. An example of this is manually operated high-pressure spray washing equipment such as used to clean automobiles and the like. It is usually desirable to have one kind of spray output when applying the cleaning solution or soap to the article being cleaned and a different spray output when rinsing off the washed article. One way of doing this was by changing the spray heads. This made it first necessary to stop the fluid flow, then the spray head would have to be removed andreplaced with another spray head and then the How would have to be started again. This usually took too much time and was too burdensome for the. most part so a single spray head was used designated to try to fillthe need as well as could be done. Infrequently, the outlet of the spray equipment wasprovided withtwo separate. spray nozzles and valve means for turning off the flowto one when the other-was in use and fordirecting the flow to the proper nozzle. This required somewhatmore complex mechanisms or requiredthat the flowbe stopped when making the change. Problems like these arose in other types of spraying, for example, in spraying fertilizers and herbicides for agricultural use.

SUMMARY A number of fluid'outlet passageways are formed through the walls of a chamber housing and an inlet conduit is coupled to the outlet-passageways through a member located in the chamber. The chamber member has a barrier wall portion and an opening through which the inlet can communicate with the outlet passageways. The housing can be rotated with respect to the chamber member to selectively place the chamber member opening in communication withone of the outlet passageways while blocking off communication with all of the other outlet passageways or to block off all outlet communicationto'stop all flow. In the preferred construction, adifferent spray nozzle is inserted in each of the outlet passageways andby rotating the housing, the respective spray nozzles with different spray output patterns can beselected without turning off the flow of fluid while the change is made. Also, each spray head that is brought into use is positioned in the same location which is animportant feature in some applications. In addition, since the valve turns off flow to the unused spray nozzle right at the outlet passageway, there is virtually no accumulationoffluid between the shut off valveandtheoutputtodripout of the nozzle. I r

4 I. 2 DESCRIPT ON OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred use of the invention as part of manually-operated high-pressure spraying equipment such as used for cleaning automobiles and the like; and

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the detailed construction of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT -While the invention may be useful in a number of different applications, it is primarily directed for use in association with spray equipment where it is desirable to change the spray heads in order to obtain different spray outputs. For example, in agricultural spraying equipment which is used to apply fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fumigants, etc., over large land areas. Ordinarily this is done with equipment which has a long tubular manifold with the outlet spray nozzles attached at prescribed distances along the manifold and the fluid being pumped into the manifold in some convenient fashion. The output spray pattern may have to be varied depending upon the type of liquid that is being sprayed and the only way that this can be done presently is by turning off the flow of the fluid and replacing each of the spray nozzles with a spray nozzle having a different spray pattern output. Another example is in manually operated high-pressure spray washing equipment. Since the instant invention has particularly good utility when used in association withthis type of equipment, it will be described herein as it is used therein.

FIG. 1 illustrates'a typical wand or gun assembly for a high-pressure spray washer. The operator holds the wand at the handle 10 and the fluidcomes in through intake hose 11, travels down conduit 12 through elbow l3 and short'inlet tube or conduit 14 into valve 15 and out the spray heads .16 and 17. By means not shown, the operator is able to select either cold water, hot water, cleaning chemicals, detergents, or liquid wax or variations thereof. Experience has shown that for the most efficient cleaning operation the spray pattern of the fluid applied to the article being cleaned, such as an automobile, should be varied according to a number of different factors, e.g., whether the cleaning compound or rinse water is being applied, the type of cleaning fluid, the degree and type of dirt on the article being cleaned, etc. As described earlier, in the past it was usually not practical to change the spray pattern because of the tediousness of replacing the spray head for each of the separate operations. A single spray head was used with the hope that it would be suitable for all functions. In some instances, multiple spray heads were provided along with means for changing them but these required quite complicated mechanisms and also required that the flow be stopped while the change was being made. The instant invention avoids those drawbacks.

In the FIG. 1 illustration, fluid is being sprayed out spray head 16 in the direction of arrow 31. In order to bring spray head 17 into play, valve 15 merely has to be rotated l. There is no need to shut off the flow of fluid back at the inlet hose 11 because, as will be described later in greater detail, the output flow is at worst only momentarily interrupted by the valve action during this changeover.

The detailed construction of valve is shown in FIG. 2. A short, hollow tubular member is threaded in an opening through the wall of housing 21 and another short, hollow tubular member 22 is threaded into an opening through an opposite wall in the housing 21. The openings in which members 20 and 22 are threaded are sealed by 0 rings 23. The openings for the passageways through members 20 and 22 which are located in chamber 24 within housing 21 are surrounded by spherically-surfaced concave seats 25 made of some suitable relatively stiff material. Located within the chamber nested in the seats 25 is a spherical member 26. At their other ends, members 20 and 22 are internally threaded to receive spray heads 16 and 17 (FIG;

Spherical member 26 has a barrier wall portion and one opening 27 which has its axis in the same plane as the axes of the openings through tubular members 20 and 22. Spherical member 26 has another opening 28 which communicates with opening 27 through a right angle passageway 29 through the spherical member. The short inlet conduit 14 is attached at one end to spherical member 26 with its passageway communicating with opening 28 and extends through a bearing opening in housing 21 which is sealed by O ring 23. The other end of conduit 14 outside the housing 21 has outer threads for attachment to elbow 13. Diametrically opposite conduit 14 is a stem 30 attached to spherical member 26 and extending through another bearing opening through the wall of housing 21 which is also sealed closed by an O ring 23.

With the valve assembly coupled to the rest of the wand assembly through the elbow 13, when in the position illustrated in FIG. 2, the spherical member 26 is positioned so that its barrier wall closes off the opening through tubular member 22 so there is no communication or flow from the chamber through it. At the same time, there is communication established between inlet conduit 14 and the opening in tubular member 20 through opening 27, passageway 29 and opening 28 in spherical member 26. In order to close off the flow through member 20 and establish communication through member 22, the housing 21 is rotated about the spherical member 26 so that the barrierportion of the latter closes off the opening through member 20 and when rotated far enough, the opening 27 lines up with the opening in member 20. Naturally, if it is de sired to shut off the flow through both members 20 and 22, then the housing is rotated to an intermediate position where the barrier wall portion of spherical member 26 is nested in the seats 25 of both outlet members 20 and 22. It should be noticed here that because the flow path is closed off to the outlet members in the chamber 24 there is very little accumulation of fluid between the close-off point and the spray heads so that there is virtually no dripping of accumulated fluid.

As an added feature, it can be seen how easily and quickly the valve assembly can be put together or disassembled. The housing is an integral part and the combination of inlet conduit 14, spherical member 26 and stem 30 can be made a single integral or unitary piece. This piece is then inserted through the bearing openings of housing 21 until the spherical member 26 is suit-' ably located in the chamber and then the two tubular members 20 and 22 are threaded into place in the openings through the walls of the housing 21 and the spray nozzles are threaded into place to complete the assembly. I claim:

1. A valve structure comprising: a chamber housing; a plurality of outlet passageways from said chamber through the wall of said housing; a concave sphericallysurfaced seat within the chamber surrounding the opening of each of said passageways; a spherical member nested in said seats having a spherical barrier wall portion, a first opening able to communicate with the housing outlet passageways and a second opening connected to said first opening by an angulated passageway through the spherical member; a stationary inlet conduit fixedly attached to the spherical member at the second opening in the spherical member for providing a stationary inlet flow passageway to said spherical member from outside the housing; said spherical member being coupled to the housing such that the housing is rotated about the spherical member to selectively bring each of said housing outlet passageways in communication with the stationary inlet passageway through said first opening and the angulated passageway in said spherical member.

2. The valve structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein the axes of the housing outlet passageways and the axis of said first opening in the spherical member are in substantially the same plane and the axis of the second opening-in the spherical member and the axis of the inlet passageway are in a plane about 90 thereto.

3. The valve structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of the housing outlet passageways comprises a short. hollow tubular member threadably engaged at one end in an opening through the housing wall and adapted to receive a spray head at its other end.

4. The valve structure of claim 1 wherein said means for coupling the spherical member to the housing includes said inlet conduit being fixedly attached at one end to the spherical member and extending through a sealed bearing opening in the housing wall whereby the housing is rotatable about the axis of the stationary inlet passageway.

5. The valve structure of claim 4 wherein said means for coupling the spherical member to the housing further includes a stem attached at one end to the spherical member diametrically opposite the inlet conduit and extending through another sealed bearing opening in the housing wall.

6. A valve structure, comprising: a chamber housing; a plurality of threaded openings through the walls of the housing, the axis of said openings being in a common plane; short outlet flow tubes threaded into said housing openings; a concave spherically-surfaced seat surrounding the end of each of said outlet flow tube openings in the chamber; a spray valve attached to the other end of each of said outlet flow tubes; a bearing opening through the wall of the housing with its axis about 90 from the outlet flow tube axes; a spherical flow control member in said chamber nested in said whereby the chamber housing is rotated about the axis of the inlet flow conduit to selectively bring said inlet conduit into communication with each of the outlet flow tubes through said spherical flow control member.

7. The valve structure as in claim 6 further including a second bearing opening in the housing wall axially stem at the second bearing opening. 

1. A valve structure comprising: a chamber housing; a plurality of outlet passageways from said chamber through the wall of said housing; a concave spherically-surfaced seat within the chamber surrounding the opening of each of said passageways; a spherical member nested in said seats having a spherical barrier wall portion, a first opening able to communicate with the housing outlet passageways and a second opening connected to said first opening by an angulated passageway through the spherical member; a stationary inlet conduit fixedly attached to the spherical member at the second opening in the spherical member for providing a stationary inlet flow passageway to said spherical member from outside the housing; said spherical member being coupled to the housing such that the housing is rotated about the spherical member to selectively bring each of said housing outlet passageways in communication with the stationary inlet passageway through said first opening and the angulated passageway in said spherical member.
 2. The valve structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein the axes of the housing outlet passageways and the axis of said first opening in the spherical member are in substantially the same plane and the axis of the second opening in the spherical member and the axis of the inlet passageway are in a plane about 90* thereto.
 3. The valve structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of the housing outlet passageways comprises a short hollow tubular member threadably engaged at one end in an opening through the housing wall and adapted to receive a spray head at its other end.
 4. The valve structure of claim 1 wherein said means for coupling the spherical member to the housing includes said inlet conduit being fixedly attached at one end to the spherical member and extending through a sealed bearing opening in the housing wall whereby the housing is rotatable about the axis of the stationary inlet passageway.
 5. The valve structure of claim 4 wherein said means for coupling the spherical member to the housing further includes a stem attached at one end to the spherical member diametrically opposite the inlet conduit and extending through another sealed bearing opening in the housing wall.
 6. A valve structure, comprising: a chamber housing; a plurality of threaded openings through the walls of the housing, the axis of said openings being in a common plane; short outlet flow tubes threaded into said housing openings; a concave spherically-surfaced seat surrounding the end of each of said outlet flow tube openings in the chamber; a spray valve attached to the other end of each of said outlet flow tubes; a bearing opening through the wall of the housing with its axis about 90* from the outlet flow tube axes; a spherical flow control member in said chamber nested in said seats, said member having a spherical barrier wall portion and a pair of openings connected by a passageway through the spherical member, one opening having its axis in the same plane as the axes of the outlet flow tubes and the other opening being coaxial with the bearing opening; a stationary inlet flow conduit attached to said spherical member at said other opening and extending through the bearing opening; and a seal around the inlet flow conduit at the bearing opening whereby the chamber housing is rotated about the axis of the inlet flow conduit to selectively bring said inlet conduit into communication with each of the outlet flow tubes through said spherical flow control member.
 7. The valve structure as in claim 6 further including a second bearing opening in the housing wall axially aligned with the first-mentioned bearing opening; a stem attached to the spherical member diametrically opposite the inlet flow conduit and extending through said second bearing opening; and a seal around said stem at the second bearing opening. 